How Do We Separate the Factual from the Possible? New Research Shows How Our Brain Responds to Both
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How do we separate the factual from the possible? New research shows how our brain responds to both:
"At a time of voluminous fake news and disinformation, it is more important than ever to separate the factual from the possible or merely speculative in how we communicate," explains Liina Pylkkanen, a professor in NYU's Department of Linguistics and Department of Psychology and the senior author of the paper, which appears in the journal eNeuro.
"Our study makes clear that information presented as fact evokes special responses in our brains, distinct from when we process the same content with clear markers of uncertainty, like 'may' or 'might'," adds Pylkkanen, also part of the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute.
"Language is a powerful device to effectively transmit information, and the way in which information is presented has direct consequences for how our brains process it," adds Maxime Tulling, a doctoral candidate in NYU's Department of Linguistics and the paper's lead author. "Our brains seem to be particularly sensitive to information that is presented as fact, underlining the power of factual language."
[...] The results showed that factual language led to a rapid increase in neural activity, with the brain responding more powerfully and showing more engagement with fact-based phrases and scenarios compared to those communicating possibility.
"Facts rule when it comes to the brain," observes Pylkkanen. "Brain regions involved in processing discourse rapidly differentiated facts from possibilities, responding much more robustly to factual statements than to non-factual ones. These findings suggest that the human brain has a powerful, perspective-adjusted neural representation of factual information and, interestingly, much weaker, more elusive cortical signals reflecting the computation of mere possibilities."
Journal Reference:
Maxime Tulling, Ryan Law, Ailis Cournane, et al. Neural Correlates of Modal Displacement and Discourse-Updating under (un)Certainty [open], eNeuro (DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0290-20.2020)
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